You can't consider this a sport

I forget how I stumbled upon it, but a weekly paper in Chicago wrote a "gamer" off a Madden video game tournament. I kid you not. I beleive it was the championship game of this tournament and the author wrote the story like a real gamer. I didn't beleive it was well written, but is professional gaming the next frontier?

I know there are a number of gaming leagues out there and I think DirecTV is going to broadcast a three-day Halo 2, Call of Duty tourney at the end of the month, but this stuff can't possibly fly as a sport. And I'm a huge gamer and in no way am I dissing pro gamers, but this sort of this belongs in the entertainment section of any paper, not the sports section.

Honestly, I should have said cheerleading instead of gymastics, but whatever. They're both glorified dance competitions. At least video games aren't performing arts.

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Yes, but those performing arts at least take athletic ability... besides, show me a video game where you aren't aided by the quality of the character or team you pick. I think the gamer-style story is a neat way to cover one of those tournaments, but it certainly isn't a sports thing.

Yes, but those performing arts at least take athletic ability... besides, show me a video game where you aren't aided by the quality of the character or team you pick. I think the gamer-style story is a neat way to cover one of those tournaments, but it certainly isn't a sports thing.
Upon thinking about it some more and seeing your post, yes, the gamer-style story is a neat way to cover a tournament, but it still doesn't belong in a sports section. Maybe the fact I found this article in a weekly had something to do with it. You certainly wouldn't see something like that in a major-metro daily, but I have seen things like video game tournaments in the entertainment section, because, well, video games are supposed to be entertaining.

With Monday's first round of The Star-Olympia Fields McDonald's Video Football Tournament kicking off, one thing became evident early: Strategy is virtually as important as talent.

Both strategy and talent propelled Hillcrest's team of Kordero Hunter, Steve McHerron, Jarrod Renfroe and Kris Bryant past TF South's squad of Joe Rizzi, Armando Urbina, Kevin Wright and Deniz Sidkey by the convincing score of 73-37, advancing the Hawks to the second round.

Hillcrest entered the matchup with a game plan of utilizing Bryant (their best player) in the fourth quarter (each player took turns competing in a quarter), but after TF South (behind the Philadelphia Eagles) took a 16-7 lead after the first period, Bryant opted to step in early.

Masterfully controlling Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, Bryant completely overmatched Rizzi in the second period, outscoring the Rebels' star quarterback by a 38-14 count in the quarter, sending Hillcrest into halftime with a 45-30 advantage.

From that point, the Hawks never looked back.

"I decided to play in the second quarter because I didn't want us to fall too far behind," Bryant said. "I figured I would score a lot of points, and my defense isn't too bad. If we keep playing like this, we might be able to go all the way."

While Hillcrest was certainly ecstatic about moving on in the tournament, the players, undoubtedly, were also pleased to avoid whatever punishment awaited them had they tasted defeat.

"I told them that they were going to have to do 250 up-downs if they lost and they'd have to walk back to Hillcrest," said Hillcrest assistant coach Charles Dockery, who offered vocal support on various occasions, giving the game an almost playoff-type feel.

The loss was disappointing not only to the Rebels' players, but also to their legion of teammates who provided a slew of boisterous support.

"This was a good idea," Rizzi said of the inaugural Madden video game using the Xbox system. "It was a lot of fun. We got to meet and talk with the other team and we had a bunch of our teammates here to support us. This football team is like one big family. It was great to have their support here."

In the second round, the Hawks will square off with Rich East, who throttled Bloom Township 62-27.

Heading into the fourth, Rich East only led 34-27, but Chavers outscored Tobicoe 28-0 to seal the triumph for the Rockets.

The convincing win not only gave the Rich East players plenty to cheer about (the Rockets brought with them several placards that read "INT," "TD," "NO," etc. and displayed them proudly at the proper moments), but it also instilled quite a bit of confidence in at least one Rich East competitor.

"We're going to go all the way," Yarborough said.

First, they have to go through Hillcrest.

"We'll be ready," Blackful said. "All we have to do is come back and get the controllers and we'll be ready."

Video gaming is more of a sport than gymnastics, simply because the winner isn't determined by abstract judging.

But really, poker, video games et. al aren't sports because it doesn't take a lick of athletic skill to participate in them. It takes more physical prowess to bowl than do either one of those.

Madden is taking on a life of its own. First there was that idiotic show with people in a bus travelling around and playing each other. Now I'm seeing commercials for a Madden 07 breakdown on ESPN pay per view. For 20 bucks you get three guys going through the game for you, all of this before you plunk down 50 bucks to get the game.

Actually, I do remember one paper chain in Canada who used EA Sports' NHL to reconstruct the 2004-2005 season from lockout, and they actually did write the stories and recaps in their sports pages. I'm not sure if it garnered much readership or not.

Actually, I do remember one paper chain in Canada who used EA Sports' NHL to reconstruct the 2004-2005 season from lockout, and they actually did write the stories and recaps in their sports pages.Â I'm not sure if it garnered much readership or not.

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Stuff like that is fun to do, and I'm all for doing that every now and then to get an off-beat feature from it. But to cover tournaments like they are sports is a bit far fetched.